By Dorothy Musyoka
Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu has called for urgent action to eliminate child labour and guarantee access to justice for children, reaffirming the Judiciary’s commitment to protecting the country’s most vulnerable.
Speaking during the closing ceremony of the Third Employment and Labour Relations Annual Symposium and Exhibition (ELRASE 3) held at Strathmore University, DCJ Mwilu emphasized the crucial role of judges and magistrates in translating legal provisions into lived protections for children.
“Every judgment we deliver, every case we handle involving a child, is an opportunity to tilt the scales of justice towards tangible societal transformation,” DCJ Mwilu stated.
DCJ Mwilu described the elimination of child labour as both a legal obligation and a profound matter of social justice.
“The fight to eliminate child labour and guarantee children access to justice is about restoring dignity to the most vulnerable, protecting the powerless, and ensuring that every child has the chance to learn, to grow, and to dream,” she said.
She reaffirmed the Judiciary’s commitment to its Social Transformation through Access to Justice (STAJ) blueprint, pledging that lessons from ELRASE 3 would strengthen jurisprudence in child labour and child rights cases.
“No child should work when they should be learning; no child should suffer when they should be safe; no child should be invisible when they should be heard, “added the DCJ.
Also speaking at the session, Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC) Principal Judge Byram Ongaya stressed that access to justice for children requires dismantling barriers such as cost, distance, language, stigma, and fear of retaliation.
“There must be effective remedies such as identifying the disconnection between laws or policies and lived realities; termination of harmful labour arrangements; and remedies that restore protection, care and dignity of the child,” said Justice Ongaya.
The Employment and Labour Relations Annual Symposium and Exhibition (ELRASE) is a flagship platform of the Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC).